Advice on newbie's itinerary!

rebeccafarr-ent

My husband and I are planning to visit Vietnam this summer in around 2 weeks. We expect to see Saigon, Hanoi, Halong, Sapa, Hue and Hoi An. The point is we have not figured out how long we should spend in each destination. Any advice will be much appreciated.

rebeccafarr-ent

Thank you for your advice. Well, we hope to have more time. However, hopefully 2 weeks will be ok for us to see some major landscapes of Vietnam. I expect to spend 2 days in Hanoi (walking tour), 2 in Halong Bay (cruising and trekking,3 in Sapa (market tour and trekking), 2 in Hoi An (sightseeing) and 3 in Hue (tombs) and the other 5 days in Saigon(too many?).

beachgirl

Joined Travelfish25th April, 2009Posts: 8Total reviews: 3

Hi Rebecca,

Two weeks is better than one week -- that's what I say!

If you're open to suggestions, I'd take a day off Hue and give it to Hoi An . The tombs in Hue are ok, but given your time scale I'd say two days there would be enough. Hoi An, has loads of shopping, the beach, island trips, the ruins at mySon and more shopping and lots of great eating and drinking ... and more shopping... I liked Hoi An a LOT (if you haven't guessed)

Once you're done there, I'd get a minibus back to Danang (the big city to the north about one hour away) and then fly to Saigon. You can fly with Vietnam Airlines, but Jetstar an Ozzie budget airline, also flies there and its far easier and cheaper to book with them.

Also, try to get the train from hue to danang. it is beautiful.

With five days in Saigon, I'd allow two days for museums and eating, one day for cuchi tunnels and the caodai temple (do a tour, its easy and super cheap) another full day for the chinatown there. We got a cyclo guy to peddle us all over the chinatown bit and it was a highlight of our time there.

One day left, we went to vungtau but didn't like it and I wouldn't go to the Delta as you'll run out of time, but maybe head for a massage and manipedi? I had a treatment at one of the flasher hotels and it was divine!

ChrZap1703

Joined Travelfish2nd February, 2009Posts: 9

Hi Rebecca !

If I may say so, spent more Time in Hoi An and less in Saigon. I found Hoi An to be a very nice place to actually just hang out there, as opposed to a city like Saigon, which is very interesting, but not really relaxing.

Also, you should plan in some time for travelling between these places. Most of your journeys can be done on night train, but not all of them, so even if ou go from Hue to Saigon by plane, you'll loose more than half a day.

Are you visiting Vietnam because it sounds like a fun place to be - and are thus just wanting to visit as many places as possible?

Or, are you wanting to experience the VN culture?

Or, do you have a passion about history..

I could go on.

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There are many people who travel to be with others of the same culture in a foreign place. Put another way, some travellers really like to be in a foreign place, but prefer not to talk the local lingo with the natives - instead talking English with other travellers.

Is this you?

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There are people who try as hard as they can to learn a few words of the local lingo so that they can engage with the locals. As they do, they learn more words, they get given 'local low downs' (ie insider knowledge) and in so doing, see a quite different side to a foreign country than the English speaking tourists.

Maybe this is you.

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The reason I ask you to write a few 'words' about your aspirations is that once you describe your (hopeful) intentions, I (and others with some experience) can help you better achieve all that you want to achieve.

It's no good me telling you to do ABCD, when you'd be much happier doing MNOP.

Get the picture?

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So, in your 2 (or more) weeks, other than list the 'icon' places that are on the 'tourist trail', please tell us what are the traveller attributes you'd like to achieve.

tingers

Hi Rebecca, 2 weeks is plenty of time to see the main sights in Vietnam - you'll have a great time. You might not have time to make it to Sapa though. I would suggest flying in between cities to cut down on travel time and maybe allowing for a few extra days in Hoi An as it's a really great little place to unwind and relax in. Enjoy your trip.

rebeccafarr-ent

Thank you all for your suggestions. I'll consider spending 1 more day in Hoi An as I myself like shopping very much.

Moon: We'd really like to engage with the locals and their language. Hopefully a homestay and trekking tour in Sapa will be the highlight of the trip. Besides, I'd like to see the daily life of the floating fishing villages' residents in Ha Long Bay.

tingers

Hi Rebecca, 2 weeks is plenty of time to see the main sights in Vietnam - you'll have a great time. You might not have time to make it to Sapa though. I would suggest flying in between cities to cut down on travel time and maybe allowing for a few extra days in Hoi An as it's a really great little place to unwind and relax in. Enjoy your trip.

tingers

Hi Rebecca, 2 weeks is plenty of time to see the main sights in Vietnam - you'll have a great time. You might not have time to make it to Sapa though. I would suggest flying in between cities to cut down on travel time and maybe allowing for a few extra days in Hoi An as it's a really great little place to unwind and relax in. Enjoy your trip.

If you want to see Halong Bay, you really need to spend at least one full day in the bay area. Getting there means you leave around 8 or 9am and get there about lunchtime, and when on the boat you really don't go very far. It is only when you spend a whole day in the area that you can go kayaking, visiting fishing villages, etc. And, by the time you leave on the third day, you will not get to the harbour for the minibus until the others going on the trip get from Hanoi, so you'll be moving from either the water (if you stayed there overnight) or Cat Ba Island to the terminal to be there around lunchtime. And, you'll get back to Hanoi around 4pm

The trains leave for Lao Cai around 9pm, so you can go from Halong Bay and get onto the night train, but its best if you have someone guide you.

2/.

The homestay in/around SaPa can be done in one night. But, all the people I've spoken to that have done one, then two or more nights, say that to get to really know / enjoy the homestay experiences, the one night isn't good. That's because you walk for a while (about 4 hours) and much is amongst the 'urban' parts of SaPa. And so you don't really feel as though you are in the rural parts of the area. It is only by going on a 2 night homestay that one gets to 'experience' ethnic village life (and also, you would visit 2 different ethnic groups - so you can compare differences).

Also, there is an amazingly colourful market held at Bac Ha on a Sunday morning. Bac ha is about 3 hours from SaPa. If you can organise yourself, you can go on the Saturday night sleeper train from Hanoi. As the train arrives about 5:30am at Lao Cai, you can get taken to Bac Ha on the Sunday to arrive there at about 8:00am. The market is just amazing. After lunch, you get driven from Bac Ha to Sapa. And, that turns out to be a full day. Alternatively, you can go on a trek/homestay from Bac Ha (many say its better from there).

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So, when I said that 2 weeks can be spent just in and around Hanoi, I wasn't joking.

Trying to also see Hue and Hoi An isn't possible if you want your journey to be a very rich and rewarding experience.

My experience with Hoi An is that people go there to get clothes made for them. I found that the fabrics were not really fashionable, the quality sort of OK, but the prices of the garments were no cheaper than what I can buy from a discount store here in Australia. So, although Hoi An is a magnet place, I wouldn't go there for the clothes.

Also, for shopping, there's heaps of goods on offer to tourists in Hanoi & Saigon that may more appeal to you.

Alternatively, you CAN see Hanoi, Hue, Hoi An, Saigon, etc. But, all you really see is a bus, plane, train, etc. or their waiting rooms, and the hotels of the cities you stay. Not much else!!

Although I have a personal preference, I really don't want to influence you to do what I did.

If you want to see what I wrote about my trip to Halong Bay, also see my blog on it at:

www.travelblog/Bloggers/brucemoon/

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Let me finish by saying that your experience on Halong Bay will reflect the way YOU want to see it - and whether on a budget, middle, or expensive. YOUR experience of Halong Bay will not be made better because you spend a lot of money. Rather, spending SOME money will put you in a position to avoid some of the pitfalls.

An Australian Veteran globetrotting...
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smkuchta

Joined Travelfish10th August, 2007Posts: 72

We just did the same basic itinerary in 4 weeks. Two weeks would be pretty tight if you aren't flying some legs. We loved Halong Bay and splurged for a 3 day 2 night tour on Indochina's Prince II Junk and it was totally worth it. The 3 day tour was nice as we didn't follow all the other boats out to the same spot but it was pricey ~$500 for two people.

Hue was nice mainly because it was so relaxed compared to Hanoi. We both loved Hoi An (highly recommend doing a cooking course if you have the interest, we did Red Bridge Cooking School).

Saigon was also great, liked it much better than Hanoi. Mekong Delta tour (did cheapie through Sinh Cafe) was just ok. Not big on tours and can't say that one really did much for us.

We also did Nha Trang (not bad, beach wasn't that impressive though we are from Southern California so a bit spoiled) and Dalat, nice scenery, hiking and GREAT weather compared to the rest of Vietnam but a little boring as well.

brucemoon

I wandered around HaNoi asking the various agents what was on offer, etc. Then I narrowed it down to just a couple of options, and only to those had 'offices' in Hanoi. I then went to the offices to deal directly with the people of the tour.

You'll see that I had negotiated a price for beer with the office, but the boat crew wanted me to pay more.

So, if there is any agreement you make with anyone about anything you MUST MUST MUST get it in writing [this point should be applied to EVERYTHING in Vietnam - so many people promise much but don't honour their promises].

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You'll also see on the website (above) that others also enjoyed the Pinta cruise.

I understand that Columbus has a cheaper boat option. And, they say the difference is the food is not as high a standard. I don't know what the standard is, but the Pinta had a very very high standard.